Dead Toro Muerto

PROGRAM

8:00 a.m
Gathering of passengers from the hotel

8:00 a.m
Departure from town to the Province of Castilla (Majes Valley). North-West of Arequipa. 163 km (2 hrs)

11:00 a.m
Arrival to Majes Valley, then we take a detour and cross the bridge towards Corire. We enter to the site where are located the petroglyphs or rupestrian carvings of Toro Muerto, the most remarkable centre of rock engravings in the world. It is located in the Majes Valley, at 400 - 800 meters above sea level, considered one of the most fertile and important valleys of Arequipa. Toro Muerto was discovered in 1951 by a team of archeologists from Universidad San Agustín. It has an extension of more than 5 Km2 and spreaded there are approximately 5000 huge stone blocks of magma or volcanic lava engraved with different figures. Its antiquity goes back to the beginning of our age (1200 years). According to Carbon-14 Tests, the engravings are 11 centuries old, that is to say between 700 to 800 AD. The sculpted stone material is igninbrite or rhyolitic tufa, the product of a volcanic eruption that may well have been either the Chachani or Coropuna volcanoes and that could have happened during the Tertiary Era. The topics of the paintings include thousand of anthropomorphous characters (dancers, musicians, shepherds, hunters, realistic and semirealistic figures), animals (jaguars, condors, smakes, eagles, camels, fishes), phytomorphous, geometrical symbols and even incomplete shapes, in process of elaboration, all of them engraved by different cultures, the Wari and Collahua, whose message and interpretation continue to be a mistery. After visiting the petroglyphs we shall visit Querullpa where, after a 20 minute walk, we would appreciate dinosaur foot prints. This place contains nearly 68 foot prints measuring between 50 and 90 cms in lenght. The age of these foot prints is about 150 million years and they correspond to the Jurasic and Cretaceus periods. These foot prints were discovered in 2002. Studies from Bristol University, England, mention that these foot prints would be the oldests found in South America. About 50 million years older than the ones found in Argentina, Chile and Bolivia. Some of the foot prints of 50 and 30 cm would have 4 fingers, 3 of them joined by membranes and the other one was free, shorter and backward. The magnitude and depth of these foot prints give an idea that these animals were about 3.5 m high and 15 m long from head to tail. There are also some other paleontologycal evidences in the area such us marine and plant fossils that show that this place was, at some time, an ocean floor

1:30 p.m Lunch in restaurants of the region (Punta Colorada) where visitors will enjoy typical food with delicious shrimp, excellent Pisco and other varieties of the traditional food of the region. Time for rest.

3:30 p.m
Return to Arequipa through the desert. (20 minutes)

6:30 a.m
Arrival to Arequipa. Transfer to the hotel. End of tour.

Includes :

• Official tourist guide in foreign language
• Transportation in private tourist units
• Ticket to the Rupestrian Petroglyphs

Recommendations :

• Use comfortable walking shoes
• Wear a hat
• Use of sunblock